Miguel del Valle: As Mayor, I'll Make Sure We Re-Enroll Kids Who Have Dropped Out

Miguel del Valle: As Mayor, I'll Make Sure We Re-Enroll Kids Who Have Dropped Out

Miguel del Valle

Candidate for Mayor of Chicago

Posted: February 9, 2011 02:04 PM

As Mayor, I'll Make Sure We Re-Enroll Kids Who Have Dropped Out

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Read More: Chicago , Chicago High School Enrollment , Chicago Mayor , Chicago Mayoral Race , Cps ,Education , El Cuarto Año , Pubic Schools , Chicago News

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When it comes to increasing state funding for Chicago Public Schools, I propose a clear solution:

Get more kids back into classrooms and on the road to graduation.

During the 2009-10 school year, 6,310 high school students in Chicago dropped out of school. Dropped out, in our system, often means expelled or pushed out. It means, in far too many cases, that our educators, administrators, and parents have failed to instill responsibility in and, at the same time, offer opportunity to struggling students.

A successful re-enrollment program must shape responsible and hopeful young people.

More than 25 years ago, I helped found an alternative school on Chicago's Northwest Side with the goal of re-enrolling, supporting, and graduating high school dropouts. We named it El Cuarto Año.

Del Valle for Mayor | For All Chicago For Every Neighborhood: Del Valle: Parking Meter Deal a Violation of City Ethics--Chicagoist

Del Valle for Mayor | For All Chicago For Every Neighborhood: Del Valle: Parking Meter Deal a Violation of City Ethics--Chicagoist

Del Valle: Parking Meter Deal a Violation of City Ethics--Chicagoist

by Joanna2011

From Chicagoist, 2.9.2011

City Clerk Miguel del Valle has asked state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to investigate the city's ballyhooed parking meter lease deal, believing that because Morgan Stanley employees didn't register with the city as lobbyists, the deal violates Chicago's ethics ordinance.

Del Valle made his announcement during a press conference at his West Town mayoral campaign headquarters yesterday, and Madigan's office said it will look into del Valle's request. Both del Valle and Carol

The Answer Sheet - When whacking kids at school is legal

The Answer Sheet - When whacking kids at school is legal

When whacking kids at school is legal

Everyone is rightly horrified about the case of a first-grade teacher at a Silver Spring elementary school who was just charged with several counts of assault after being accused of choking and/or punching eight young students. Adults assaulting students at school? That has to be wrong. Right? Wrong. This case in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland serves as a good reminder about legal whacking, better known as corporal punishment, which is still allowed in 20 states and which is administered to hundreds of thousands of students a year.

TFA’s Wendy Kopp is Coming to Town | Seattle Education 2010

TFA’s Wendy Kopp is Coming to Town | Seattle Education 2010

TFA’s Wendy Kopp is Coming to Town

by seattleducation2010

The League for Education Voters, LEV, that same Broad-backed, Gates’ funded organization that brought us Kevin Johnson, a big proponent of charter schools who spoke to a mostly African-American audience in an African-American church in Seattle and by the way, the only event that was not held at the MOHAI Museum, Steve Barth with KIPP, and my personal favorite, Ben Austin with the Parent Trigger, is now sponsoring an evening with Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America (TFA), to extol the virtues of her organization.

Sue and I have written on this blog about Teach for America and how recruits recently graduated from college are used to populate charter schools with cheap labor after five weeks of training to work specifically in low-poverty schools for two years before continuing on in their chosen professions which is usually not in the field of

Student Activists Charged with Engaging in Student Activism | Change.org News

Student Activists Charged with Engaging in Student Activism | Change.org News

Student Activists Charged with Engaging in Student Activism

When the University of California, Irvine (UCI) last year asked the ambassador of a government widely considered to be guilty of war crimes to deliver a lecture on campus, student activists upset over their tuition money being used to provide him a platform for propaganda staged a protest, shouting phrases like "murder is not free speech," that ultimately prevented the lecture from being delivered.

Had the ambassador been from, say, Sudan, and had he rationalizing the slaughter of civilians in Darfur, the students would likely be heralded as heroes who bravely stood up for their beliefs. But he wasn't: the

Cathy Black Can’t Even Make A Good Argument Without Screwing it Up « Outside the Cave

Cathy Black Can’t Even Make A Good Argument Without Screwing it Up « Outside the Cave

Cathy Black Can’t Even Make A Good Argument Without Screwing it Up

by Stephen Lazar

I actually agreed with 99% of what Cathy Black wrote in her Daily News Op-Ed today. In the following paragraph, she (or whoever wrote this for her) absolutely nails the problem with current, Regents-focused curriculum:

… it is crucial that we also focus on taking steps that will actually help better prepare our kids for college-level work. That means having a curriculum that teaches students how to write critically, how to back up their arguments with facts and how to apply mathematics to real-world situations.

New Yorkers: Make Your Voice Heard on Proposed New Graduation Requirements

by Stephen Lazar

The New York State Board of Regents has issued a set of proposals to make changes to graduation requirements, and has created a survey for people to give feedback. I think it’s well worth the time to read the proposal and give feedback. Links and more info are below

Del Valle for Mayor | For All Chicago For Every Neighborhood: A Path To Voiding The Parking Meter Deal--Progress Illinois

Del Valle for Mayor | For All Chicago For Every Neighborhood: A Path To Voiding The Parking Meter Deal--Progress Illinois

A Path To Voiding The Parking Meter Deal--Progress Illinois

by Joanna2011

From Progress Illinois, 2.9.2011

Ever since the parking meter deal was hastily passed by the Chicago City Council in 2008, opponents tried to figure out a way to get out of the deal. Chicago mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle thinks he has found a way.

At a press conference yesterday, del Valle called on Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to re-open an investigation of the deal. The City Clerk explained how, using Chicago's ethics code, the city can void the contract. Del Valle noted that when negotiating the deal, no one from Morgan Stanely registered with the city as a lobbyist, and pointed to the portion of the code stating that a contract would be voided if the bidder did not

Class Struggle - Let's hear more from commenter who exposed Rhee error

Class Struggle - Let's hear more from commenter who exposed Rhee error

Let's hear more from commenter who exposed Rhee error

By Jay Mathews

Here is the comment I posted this morning on the Education Writers Association listserve, where topic A is the G.F. Brandenburg blog that proves Michelle Rhee said her students' gains when she taught elementary school were more than they turned out to be. I am posting it here because I want the person who says he pointed out the crucial document to Brandenburg to take some credit, and tell us how he did it. The scoop artist is edlharris, a frequent and often wise commenter in this blog. How did he find the document? Where has it been all these years since it was published in 1995? What could reporters have done to discover it sooner?

Me on the EWA listserve:

I agree that we, including me, did a bad job at this. Actually it was edlharris, the signon for a frequent commenter on my blog, who says he

The Answer Sheet - Ravitch: Public schools are not chain stores

The Answer Sheet - Ravitch: Public schools are not chain stores

Ravitch: Public schools are not chain stores

This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch on her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” an important critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement. Dear Deborah, Last week, the New York City Department of Education received permission from the city's Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, to close an additional two dozen public schools because their scores are too low. The city has now closed more than 100 schools and opened hundreds of new ones. The consent of the PEP was never in doubt. New York City has a governance system for its public schools in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unlimited power

NY State Charter Schools, Regents Scores and Other Test Data Dispiriting

NY State Charter Schools, Regents Scores and Other Test Data Dispiriting

NY State Charter Schools, Regents Scores and Other Test Data Dispiriting

posted by: Cynthia Liu 23 minutes ago

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New York has been struggling to improve its schools. Now a new study released by education researchers in New York state shows that getting a passing grade on the Regents statewide exams in reading and math correlates to college readiness. The researchers defined college readiness as the ability to sustain at minimum a C average.

College readiness and charter schools

There are two main -- if not surprising insights into the study's results:

1) Affluence affects college readiness; 95% of students from these wealthy backgrounds graduate, and 72% sustain a C average or better. Those from less wealthy districts help contribute to a statewide average of 77% of students who graduate; only 41% of these students sustain a C average or better once in college.

2) Existing public high schools and public charters have divergent results, showing much worse performance for charters:

Statewide, only 10 percent of students at charters graduated in 2009 at college-ready standards, though 49 percent received diplomas.

However, not all news is bad--despite the poor readiness rates, the Board of Regents may feel it can raise cutoff scores to pass math (80) and reading (75) with the general sense that student achievement will follow. They may also reason that now is a good time to beef up trade and vocational training in recognition that not all students will attend college.

Update: Records Don't Match Rhee Classroom Claims - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Update: Records Don't Match Rhee Classroom Claims - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Update: Records Don't Match Rhee Classroom Claims [image: Cohort-effects-at-harlem-park-jpg]After more than three years of claiming to have raised student test scores astronomically during her stint as a Baltimore teacher, former DC schools chief Michelle Rhee is facing news that the actual results ...

AM News: The Return Of Reform Legislation [image: image from webmedia.newseum.org]Chicago's do-not-hire list Tribune: In one case, the inspector general's office fired one of its own investigators who was arrested for shoplifting. The woman was later acquitted of the charge and was rehired ...